Mass of Eden
by Gaius Marus
Summary: Shepard overcomes indoctrination and fires the catalyst, disabling the Reapers. An unintended side effect of the catalyst causes Haestrom's sun to oddly generate a stable wormhole to universe filled will cybernetic lifeforms more terrible then Reapers, Capsuleers.
1. Shattered Illusion

"You must choose." the star child told Shepard. This didn't sit well with John. The constant low hum mixed with the pain kept him confused. He had to rely on pure animal instinct. Control seemed to be the right choice, and synergy, to join with the reapers, a new form of being, evolution if you will. But raw emotion, rage, passion, fear dove him away from what the star child seemed to push him towards.

'_No_,' thought Shepard moving wards the power conduit bathed in red light. The other choices felt like giving in to what the reapers wanted over the benefit of organics. As he walked towards his goal, pulled out his weapon and fired shot, he felt reinvigorated, stronger. The conduit exploded and Shepard sighed expecting death, but instead felt weight on his chest, chunks of concrete and plaster.

"Commander! Commander Shepard!" screamed EDI through the intercom in his ear. '_It wasn't real I was undergoing indoctrination_ ', he concluded, "Shepard here, I'm hit but alive. Did anyone make it through the relay?" he crawled to his feet as EDI reported that Harbingers attack had wiped out the ground force, that Anderson was coming in with a second wave of reinforcements. He made his way to beam of light painfully. A marauder suddenly ambushes him shooting him through the shoulder, the ruined armor offering no protection. Shepard falls and hears gun fire, the voice of Anderson giving out orders near by as he blacks out.

* * *

Shepard slowly awakes on board the Normandy medical bay. "He's awake," Dr. Chakwas remarks. "Wha...what happened?" Shepard tries to say. "Apparently EDI speculates you were being, rather aggressively being indoctrinated by the lead Reaper, and having overcome it, you gave it pause, allowing the reinforcements to actually make it into the relay."

"Did it work?" Shepard asked with disbelief. "Sort of, EDI can better then I explain but it caused a-" Chakwas began to explain before EDI interrupted over intercom. "A temporal disruption on mass effect generation fields, insufficient to disrupt non-reaper technology but causing all Reapers to...shut off, the hulls are hovering adrift many are expected to simply burn up in atmosphere as they lose orbit around Earth."

Shepard fell back onto his bed, "so...we did it" he said with a sigh of relief. Then thinking clearly stood up saying "they're be a lot of rebuilding to do we have work to."

* * *

Light years away the mass effect relay in Haestrom radiated the energy of the catalyst through the system. The sun gave off a massive burst of energy threatening to go supernova, instead the energy stabilized and the rare event of wormhole generation began. Within milliseconds a stable wormhole formed leading to a galactic cluster known as New Eden. The Eden side of worm hole however was unstable, reforming unpredictably within the cluster like any normal wormhole, ready for it's first traveler. The equipment left by the Quarian's noticed all this strange energy formations, but the scientist were to busy reclaiming their home world to pay any head to unmanned drone.


	2. Profitable Invasion

**Eve Universe, Domain region, Ashab System.**

Seven fourteen hundred howitzer cannons of Marcel Dussault's Machariel battle ship fired in unison, on the dieing Sansha mother ship. A reinforcement wave of bombers landed within range of what capsuleers call simply "grid." The fleet commander gave out an order to ignore them, "mother ship in sixty percent structure focus fire on primary!" The fleet of fifty capsuleers fired and launched waves of death and destruction on the crumbling ship. Marcel's enhanced subconscious effortlessly gave out commands to the ships internal robotics, loading the next round faster, as his instincts where digitally conveyed to the tracking systems pointing the bulky cannons at critical spots on his target.

Half of the enemy bombers by chance fired on Marcel's ship. Fifty percent of his shielding was wiped away. It failed to cause him concern, as his mind relayed a shield transfer order to a near by Basilisk logistic ship. Already prepared the 'logi' pilot sent a wave of shield energy topping off Marcel's shield to maximum strength. In a few seconds the Sansha mother ship's hull integrity had fallen below five percent as Marcel's big guns fired again. The salvo ripped right through the ship followed by a huge explosion ripping the ship in half. The enemy ships immediately broke off warping away, the backbone of the incursion broken. Data of the events where instantly logged by his ship's computer, and shared with the rest of the fleet.

"Hell ya, got final blow, alpha strike FTW!" Marcel bragged into the fleet coms. Automated CONCORD funds were wired into his and all participating fleet members personal accounts. A mail was also sent by the CONCORD bureau personally thanking him for liberating the region from the Sansha incursion. He ignored it, being paid was what was important to him. He excitedly thought about when and where the next incursion will, where his next easy ISK will be.

The fleet began to break off, Marcel willed his ship to the nearest station, intending to park his ship for his more versatile Proteus cruiser. Fitted with a salvage rig he returned to floating wreck of mother ship. A soft white laser passed over the wreckage cutting out intact armor plates and ships computers. The items where of meager value, the rare blueprint found in the wreck was taken by the fleet commander and it's market price was divided equally among the fleet. Marcel's wallet was being lined with over a hundred million ISK from this incursion alone, putting his total liquid fund at 2 billion. It wasn't enough however, he had his sight's on getting capital ships, carriers and dreadnaughts. He'll be needing a few more billions before his current ambition can be practically realized.

With both his work and the fleet scattered, Marcel launched probes out in system looking for anything to make fast ISK off of. No dead space of any interest showed up, two sad gravimetric sites, and a wormhole. Marcel figured to try the wormhole rather then jump to a new system, w-space did some times pay off given no hostile capsuleers are there to blow up your expensive ship. _'Well take a look, class one to three I'll take it, no point going into a four or lower alone,'_ he figured. He ignored the dangerous prospect of w-space, formerly apart of a productive wormhole alliance before it disbanded, he relished any opportunity to take trips through the unpredictable space.

The signature was relatively easy to locate, giving the impression it was a lower class site. He warped to the discovered wormhole, he checked the systems local communications seeing few pilots in system, it increased his confidence that he'd be alone. He sent out his camera drones to the event horizon of the wormhole as he landed in on grid. A seasoned explorer he could tell what class of system he'd be jumping into by simply seeing the nebula reflected in event horizon, but this wormhole looked strange. None he'd seen before, black with a white streak running through the middle.

The bubble like entrance didn't vibrate, and the radiation levels coming from it was constant, suggesting that it minuets old and untraveled. He debated with himself, unknowns mean both danger and profit. Figuring the encounter with another capsuleer was unlikely given the scenario, he pressed forward and entered the portal.

The jump wasn't any different then any other wormhole he's been through. There are 2499 known systems that connect to New Eden through the wormhole system, this is not one of them he immediately noticed. No com buoy was present, and his ships scanner read thousands of small signatures all listed as unknown. He initiated his thrusters to remove the temporary cloak created by event horizon. With normal ship functions restored he launched all eight probes for a full system scan. As sensor data came in, it showed hundreds of active vessels in system congregated around what appeared to be a small station of sorts orbiting a barren planet.

He warped towards the planet, and was greeted by a small force once he landed. It appears the probes had alerted what ever guards this structure, however they where not instantly hostile. He didn't recognize any of the ships designs, a quick scan of the ships and the floating structure showed no life forms detected. _'Well funny how all w-space seem to filled with sleeper drones, strange looking ones these are though, oh well let's see what goodies you got inside of you,'_ he thought. Following standard anti-sleeper tactics, he figured they where a mas of fighters and frigates being so small, twenty of them to one wouldn't be dangerous he figured. Many more appeared but they where at extreme ranges, by the time they come into combat range he'd be ready.

Four neutron blasters pointed at the largest ship, a frigate by Marcel's standards and fired. The bolts of super heated plasma raced towards it target, smashing into the shield of the lead ship. The effect was interesting to say the least, the blot splashed into the shield unleashing massive amounts in of kinetic energy as expected, but once the kinetic energy was drained the heated plasma came into contact with the ship's hull. The plasma immediately super heated the ship, an explosion was quickly followed. The swarm of small ships acted imitatively firing high velocity munitions.

Marcel was stunned by the situation, it was nagging at him how these "sleeper drones" where using shield technology, but now seeing a lack of armor, kinetic projectile weapons in stead of beam lasers, they where not the drones he was looking for. His shields where mitigating the kinetic damage by 86%, but more ships came onto the grid, and still more from the station. He launched his five hammerhead drones armed with their own plasma weapons, setting them to target the small nimblest of fighters while focusing his guns on larger ships. The number's of the drone ships began to dwindle as waves of reinforcements slowed. They switched early on to Marcel's drones, but he'd simply pull them back into the safety his ship when targeted only to relaunch them back with full shields within moments. Ships tried to out maneuver him but he activated his stasis webifier, slowing his target down for a merciless kill. As the battle raged on, slowly but surely Marcel's shields fell.

After the first bolt clearly hit Marcel's armor, the defenders seemed to call in there last wave of ships, attacking with renewed confidence, it was in vain. The specialized nanite armor of his ship was extremely strong against kinetic attacks, as 93% of the energy was simply shrugged off. The defenders continued despite there lack of ability to inflict major damage. Marcel waited until he lost more the ten percent of his armor integrity before running a single cycle of his armor repair system. Energy was pumped through the nanites in his armor plates, they repaired the scratches and light damage returning the ship to it's pristine shape. As this happened the defenders recognized the futility of their struggle and attempted to warp away.

Marcel noticed the attack stopping, as ships aligning to warp out. He initiated his warp disruptor on one of the remaining to ships, but to his surprise it had no effect. The remaining ships fled leaving him surrounded in a field of wrecks. With the fight over, he began salvaging the wrecks, now undefended he set his blasters and drones to slowly destroy the station. His salvager didn't pick up much in terms of useable ship parts, but instead found odd humanoid robots, and cores containing an element he couldn't identify. As the station began to fall apart Marcel ejected all his ammo from his cargo hold, creating room for as many of the strange robots, for what he guessed are computer data cores, and this strange unknown element. Going through the wreckage of the station, he sadly had to part with the wealth of material he simply couldn't fit in his limited cargo hold.

He warped back to wormhole that would take him back to New Eden full of loot. He didn't know if any of it would be valuable but sure someone, maybe a civilian scientist may be willing to part with a substantial amount of ISK for these artifacts. As he landed on the wormhole a sudden chill passed through him, the entrance had changed. On the event horizon no longer did it show the golden nebula of the Amarr system, but the blue glow of the Caldari territories. _'Did it change? How could it, I've been gone for no more then two hours I should've had another ten or twelve hours! How can this still be at the same location here but connect to a different place?!' _Marcel thought in panic. He had long since corrected his standing with Caldari since his old days in the Gallente militia, but there was no way of telling if this would take him out into safe highsec space or dangerous low or null.

With little choice he jumped through the treacherous wormhole. The com buoy immediately welcomed him to Perimeter. Marcel let out a mental sigh of relief quickly followed by a sensation of giddiness. _'What luck safe and a jump away from Jita, my lucky day,' _he mentally exclaimed to himself. He jumped over to the Jita system and deposited his loot safety in the 4-4 Caldari navy station. He purchased a Dominix battleship of the market, and spent ten minuets of acquiring modules and fitting to his new ship. The fitting was unorthodox, shield fitted with high kinetic resistance and extra cargo expanders, he set back over to Perimeter to finish the salvage job. The whole affair taking no more then twenty minuets, he was surprised to fine the wormhole had clasped and was gone.

Marcel was quick to ensure his computer logged all the event's that happened, now he knew scientist would pay for all data and artifacts collected through his strange odyssey, he simply needed to find the highest bidder. The greater ramifications of what his discovery could mean where beyond his care, he had found his quick pay.


	3. Nightmare Invasion

**Mass Effect Universe, Orbit over Earth**

Shepard sat on his bed in his captain's quarters considering the exchange he had earlier, "are you sure Anderson, I'm a solder not a politician. I'm not sure how I'd be of any real use on the council."

Anderson let out a small chuckle, "I recall your response to your proposal was 'we already have enough politicians on the council already' if I'm not mistaken. Sides I've not seen any do what you did-" Shepard tried tried to be modest, injecting how it was a galactic effort but Anderson would have none of that. "No, you united the galaxy, you pushed for catalyst, hell you negotiated peace between Geth and the _Quarians_, no one could have done what you've accomplished!"

"Commander there is another new message for you," Specialist Traynor informed Shepard over intercom. Shepard got up moving towards his personal computer, thinking it was Anderson pressuring him for a response. To his surprise it was titled urgent and from the Geth, it read as follows:

_Commander Shepard, as of now both you and the Quarian government are both being informed of a an assault on our station in orbit on Haestrom, a planet we believe your familiar with. The attack was carried out by a single ship, though the design and technology didn't resemble the old machines, it was successful at annihilating the force garrisoned there. We would like to request the assistance of the Normandy in locating said vessel. We have a video recording of the event that can be downloaded and played through your omni-tool, we await your reply._

Shepard began downloading and watching the video. The shape and look of the strange vessel got his attention. Black and organic in shape, it did eerily remind him of the reapers, but he trusted the judgment of the Geth. That faith was challenged many times through, it didn't resemble the reaper form, or weapons, but the efficient slaughter and one sided battle did. There we two oddities before the video cut out, one was how space seemed to warp around the Geth ships slowing them down, the other was the regenerating armor. He replayed the last one over many times in utter disbelief in what he was seeing. Reapers were vulnerable when there powerful shields fell, this ship seemed to wear them just for show, and the ability to self repair was a more frightening prospect then it's powerful weapons.

Shepard got up and raced toward the elevator, activating his omni-tool calling Traynor, "get me Admiral Hackett now!" he ordered as he exited, following up with orders for Joker to set a course for the Dholen system. He didn't have to to wait long in the com room before a hologram of Admiral Hackett appeared before him.

Hackett asked in formal fashion, "Commander, this is sudden what do you have for me?"

Shepard wasted no time manipulating his omni-tool, "Admiral you have to see this." The holo-image of Hackett motioned to pushed an invisible button on his side, looking down he began to watch a speed up version of the video.

Hackett looked confused, asking "Commander, what exactly am I looking at here...did that thing just regenerate?"

Shepard responded, "Unknown sir, while the Geth claim it isn't a Reaper, unprovoked it single-handed wiped out a Geth flotilla. They should be in the middle of discussing things with the Quarian government, and have asked for my personal involvement."

"By all means commander you still have the right to act as you see fit, I'll see if I can quietly set up a task force for this, if we don't know much about it yet I don't want to start a panic, either way we'll be counting mostly on you for now, Hackett out." The Admiral and Shepard both gave a brief salute to each other as the hologram faded.

With that done Shepard turned and touched a console on the wall contacting EDI, "I need for you to establish contact with the Geth, can you do that?"

"One moment commander...done you are now speaking directly to the Geth consensus," responded EDI.

A voice similar to the one Legion used to use greeted him through the console, "Shepard Commander, are you responding to our message?"

"Yes though I'm not sure what help you expect from myself or the Normandy."

"From what data we gathered from the attack the Normandy's upgrades may be of greater use against the unknown vessel, we have determined it used plasma based thermal weapons, your Cyclonic Barrier shield's would guide most plasma away from your ship, also your Silaris armor does protect from extreme thermal damage, and your stealth capabilities could be of some use-"

Shepard interjected "yes but where not the only ship to have or use similar technology, I'm not about to put my ship into a fire fight against that thing."

"Correct commander, we have asked you because we have witnessed your ability at defusing hostile situations. The vessel wasn't immediately hostile, we believe it became so after detecting no organic life, we are still building consensus on this as we are lacking evidence but we see it as a highly plausible cause."

"You think it may have attacked because it detected only machines...so was it being piloted by organics?"

"Unknown, we where unable to scan inside the vessel, we are however certain that in at least in part, it was being operated by an AI, the navigational response by the vessel was far too accurate and quick for organic pilots."

Shepard paused, trying to piece together what is already known about this vessel before letting assumptions cloud his judgment. With a rough idea of his next move he asked, "do you have any idea where it is or heading?"

"No, there was no activity at the local relay, it is either still in system or in middle of traveling to another solar system manually...an update the Quarian government as of now have agreed to a joint task force."

_'Great so now lives will be on the line,' _Shepard thought. "Very well, send us coordinates and we'll get there."

**Dholen System, orbit over Haestrom**

"Navigational response too accurate for organic pilots," Joker shouted in his cockpit in mock outrage. "I'm really hurt by this, I mean they obviously through Legion have scene me in action!"

EDI sitting next to him teased, "I'm sure the Geth came to their conclusion considering you, maybe I should take notes from them and be more active at the helm." The couples banter was cut short as a Quarian cruiser aligned itself beside the Normandy.

Joker looked down at his controls relaying the message as it appeared before him, "Admiral Tali'Zorah is requesting permission to come a board the Normandy, Sir." Shepard nodded as he headed towards the air lock. The sterilization screen only took a few extra moment's before the airlock opened.

"A month...can ever even go a month before you had to find a disaster and through yourself in the middle of it," Tali exclaimed the moment the air lock opened. Before he even had a moment to respond he was surprised to find Garrus standing next to Tali.

"Hey...I did expect you" Shepard said, moving aside to let Tali aboard, but stopping Garrus to shake his hand.

"Well there not much left for me on Palaven and well," Garrus trailed off sheepishly, not wanting to spill out to whole crew his relations.

Shepard stopped teasing and mercifully cut him off, "anyways with you aboard I'll have a ground team I can rely on."

"Hm really where's every run off too?" Garrus asked.

"Well Major Alenko is busy on Earth, the Military has been trying to help the civilian population rebuild. Vega has enrolled in the reformed N7 program, Liara well...don't know shadow broker business forces her so stay underground, though she does frequently send messages. Javik I think is enjoying being a god on Kahje," Shepard explained, then turning to Tali he asked, "so what's the plan, there's literately lots of space to be blindingly looking for something we don't know much about."

Tali nodded, "well once we arrived in system we picked up a signal from the equipment I left on Haestrom." She paused as if expecting a response from Shepard, after a silent moment she explained slightly flustered, "the signal was received in space."

EDI interrupted with curiosity, "wait, I thought the electromagnetic interference prevent reliable broadcast through atmosphere?" Oh and nods where mumbled from Joker and Shepard now caught up.

"Yes!" Exclaimed Tali overly excited, "I had checked back and apparently it's been broadcasting for a few a while, it was sadly ignored with so much loose equipment all over the galaxy, it wasn't anyone priority." She paused calming down before continuing, "the scary thing is, it started just after the catalyst fired."

Shepard asked, "I'm not sure I see the connection."

Tali nodded elaborating, "well somehow Dholen's star has well stabilized...I mean that weird dark matter radiation that was speeding up it's growth has, stopped...it's like something has absorbed it...so are they all connected, no idea all I can see is three separate strange events."

Shepard nodded, he turned to EDI asking her input. She responded "very well, Tali if you can forward all relevant data I'll see what conclusion I can draw of this." With that over the crew resumed normal duties, Shepard invited Tali and Garrus to the port observation deck asking her how the recolonization of Rannoch was going. Garrus declined, saying he'd need to do calibrations on the ship's cannons...just in case. On the observation deck Tali revealed this joint operation to be mostly a political maneuver to test the bonds between their two people. Shepard largely had figured that out but was disturbed to hear it had gained overwhelming support due to his inclusion, both people see him as the necessary mediator between them, it simply reminded him about Andersen's proposal. He didn't have any desire to retire into a diplomat but it seemed evident the only thing he could now do for the galaxy.

It was a peaceful few hours before EDI hailed Shepard over intercom, "Commander after reconfiguring scanners to better detect dark energy I've found that it isn't gone...it's all being drawn to a single source, and I have located that source. Shall I inform fleet and move in for a closer investigation?"

Shepard got up "Good work EDI, hold on I'll be right up." After getting back to the bridge, he ordered his crew on yellow alert. The combined Geth and Quarian fleets fielded a force of sixteen cruisers, thirty frigates and two wings of fighters aligned but held on standby to the coordinates of the anomaly. The Normandy activated it's stealth before jumping to source that was drawing in all the dark energy. Moment's later the Normandy dropped out it's short FLT flight near the anomaly. Everyone was tense, sensor's where actively scanning for a few moment's before the all clear was sounded. With a lack of apparent danger the attention was turned to the weird pulsing bubble that lay before them. "EDI...what is that?" Shepard asked after ordering a stand down.

EDI looked blankly at the anomaly before her, "I don't know." There was a pause as readouts began to displaying what the sensor's where trying to pick up. "From what I can scan...that space in front of us doesn't exists...or rather it's distorted, what we are seeing are lights being emitted from out of nowhere, I'm sorry commander my processing it being pushed to maximum just trying to look at it, it's like dividing by zero...the space-time in front of us is simply being pushed outwards...I'm going to speculate that we maybe looking at the event horizon of a wormhole," EDI tried to explain, and for once she sounding completely confused.

Joker interrupted, "ah Commander, the fleet it is awaiting our response sir."

EDI nodded to Shepard sensing his question, "I do not currently believe there to be any danger, also the the combined scientific expertise of the Quarians and processing of the Geth would be most helpful." Shepard nodded giving orders for the fleet to approach but from a distance. The anomaly was marveled at by the two races, but lacking proper equipment and scientific expertise the Geth took precedence.

After a short while of observing the anomaly, EDI turned to Shepard conveying what she and Geth have been learning. "We have decided that this must be a wormhole, but we do not know where it leads, the visible stars do not match any known area in the galaxy. The Geth have formed a plan to send in a ship to test if matter can safely passed through, the few run times aboard have been backed up so they see no risk," she shared.

Shepard nodded giving her the go ahead, the fleet watched as one small Geth fighter moved into the bubble. The bubble suddenly vibrated, a small radiation spiked was noticed by almost every ship in the fleet and suddenly the fighter vanished. All was silent for a few moments before EDI reported, "the fighter has lost contact...as far as the Geth can tell it's as if the run-times aboard suddenly disconnected from their network, as soon as it crossed the event horizon." Everyone at the bridge let out a disappointed sigh, but EDI continued, "there was a possibility that they couldn't maintain connection through the wormhole, but if not it was preprogramed to comeback immediately, I guess our mysterious vessel doesn't use wormholes, would've explained a lot...hold on!" she was cut off as the bubble violently shook, large bursts of radiation set all sensitive equipment screaming again and again.

Shepard ordered the fleet to pull back but the command was unnecessary all vessels took the initiative, already moving to retreat back several more kilometers. Suddenly as if materializing out of empty space, strange brown colored ships with edges coated in a sick green color. The smaller ships where shaped like a human brain, while the larger where like bulbs with their engines sticking out back, but the oddest feature there the huge spikes sticking along the middle ship running down front to back. The design was odd and frightening, the smaller ones where a large as the Normandy and the larger ones looked to be the size of a heavy cruiser. Still more ships seemed to be materializing pitting four large vessels with seven small against Shepard's larger fleet.

Before any response could be given EDI managed to say "Sir there using radar to lock onto our ships I think there about to-" before three beams of white light shot out of the lead spiked heavy cruiser onto a Quarian cruiser. The beams hit the upper ring of cruiser, the beam only pulsed for a second but the upper ring was vaporized with the surrounding hull plate molten. There was no time to find out the ultimate fate of the ship as Shepard singled out the offending ship and ordered all ships to fire. The three other cruisers fired at random, the moved forwards to wards their targets seeming not to care about holding a clear formation. The first wave of concentrated fire against the spiked cruiser failed break it's shields, were a normal ship of it's size would have exploded. Oddly the ship seemed to glow as a wave of light moved over the ship, EDI figured it was trying to reinforce it's shields.

The spiked frigates moved in a fast speeds, four of them were fitted with an over sized torpedo launchers, launching missiles a quarter of their own length. Most of Shepard's frigates were fitted with GARDIAN anti-missile laser turrets, they were effective at detonating the torpedoes before making contact with the ship but the blast force even from a distance in space ship stressed kinetic barriers. The spiked frigates with lasers however where making a mess of the fighters melting them in rapid succession, even a blast to a frigate or cruiser was causing hull breaches. However with most of fleet still hitting a single cruiser, it was on sixth volley that half the rounds hit the hull of the ship. Shepard ordered a full salvo of Javelin missiles launched, as they raced towards the unshielded vessel, it was clear there was a difference between that first invading vessel and these. Their armor wasn't as effective, nor did it seem to regenerate crumbling and bucking under the force of multiple thanix cannons. As the missiles slammed into there mark the ship burst into flames, the following rounds reduced it into a burning wreak.

This battle was different, the cruiser spiked ships moved slow and clumsy, the frigates while fast lacked that agility of the earlier vessel that was ship three times it size. While having superior firepower some shots would go wide or only graze that of a moving ship, the fighters and frigates together destroyed the laser firing frigates, while the torpedo frigates launched their minimally effective payload. The cruisers pummeled the reaming three cruisers, victory seemed close and possible. The wormhole bubble began vibrating again, this time sending out huge waves of radiation, the biggest spikes yet. Almost immediately the ships materialized. A fleet of spiked frigates and cruisers appeared, but that wasn't all three towering ships as well. They where flat and vertical with large spikes on the front going up and down, and standing a kilometer long. The three dreadnaught sized ships fired four lasers each, however with far greater power simply cutting through the cruisers in a single hit.

"FLT NOW!" screamed Shepard, both a Joker and over the fleet intercom. The surviving ships almost all jumped into the safety of FLT. Once out of FTL Shepard ordered all survivors to the relay. Shepard was about to order the fleet to the relay the fleet com exploded in traffic, "This hs cap...r-relay trap...already here...", "Mayday Mayday Captain vescha of the Izdala they found us in deep space- aw!"

"EDI what's going on?!" Shepard asked, as two spiked cruisers landed near the Normandy. Joker immediately took evasive action, spinning and weaving dodging the laser fire pouring out of the two cruisers. EDI commend while Shepard and the crew did their best to hang on, "I believe they can scan and detect us even with stealth active...Geth are reporting that enemy vessel immediately headed for relay and are awaiting in ambush."

Joker reactivated FTL trying to buy more time. "So what now, we keep running and hope other people make it out alive somehow?" Joker shouted in annoyance. EDI paused before adding, "Sir, Geth units that have been spaced near the anomaly are still active, they say the event horizon has changed...the visible star pattern now shows the same formation from a reverse perspective."

Shepard was shaking his head at what was being proposed to him, "what forces are still surrounding it?"

"Minimal...no...now the hostiles have moved away from the wormhole once it changed, the Geth note that the behavior is odd, they now seem to how poured all resource into hunting down survivors," EDI reported.

"Speaking of which," Joker shouted as three cruisers and a few frigates landed near them, "ah come on these guys just don't give up!" the chase didn't last long before Joker had them back in FLT. Shepard didn't like the idea but his choices where to run strait into death, be chased till death, or jump into the unknown. It didn't take him long to decide before ordering Joker to them to the wormhole, he responded by grumbling about how certain doom is now a regular part of his Tuesdays routine.

Shepard quickly ordered, "EDI I want you send a full report of what happened to alliance, they have to prepare for this." Then opened the fleet com, "This is commander Shepard, where going through the wormhole, apparently it now leads somewhere else, if your unwilling to risk the jump please hold FLT for as long as possible try to reach another system good luck." The silence that followed was a little nerve rattling before only a few ships responded. The remaining two Quarian cruisers opted to remain in FLT, the remaining frigates sited that they can land on planet and would rather make a stand there. Shepard wished them luck as they dropped out of FLT, the crew looked at the wormhole floating before them.

"Well here goes nothing" Joker chimed before moving into then event horizon. The sensation was agonizing, like all of you skin and insides being pushed and pulled at the same time, it only lasted a second though. Shepard was the first to recover, "Everyone okay?!" Slowly people responded yes save for Jokers 'never again' statement, EDI and the electronic equipment however appeared unaffected. As the crew collected themselves Shepard looked out into unfamiliar space asking EDI, "where are we now?"


	4. Dark Alliance

The illusive man let out a thick puff of smoke while watching several monitors at once. His calm and detached demeanor didn't reflect the panicking screams coming from the speakers, "Stealth is useless, we can't run for much longer!" He tapped a button on his consul before calmly asking, "can you confirm Shepard escaped through the anomaly?"

"Yes...but we will not be able to retrieve any battle field wreckage...Evasive maneuvers two vessels ahead, requesting reinforcements!" The illusive man replied by cutting off the transmission. He took a long drag from his cigarette thinking about what move to make next. The war on the reapers almost destroyed Cerberus, most operatives dead, captured or turncoat. They stood on the bring of financial ruin, but worst of all they are now publicly exposed. It was by sheer fortune they managed to intercept Shepard's transmission to the alliance about this 'wormhole' and the powerful vessels that come through it. A few shuttles with stealth drives waited in system, hidden watching from afar hoping to recover anything from the battlefield.

_ 'Well not a complete failure,_' he though as he forwarded the recording of the attack to a lab for analysis, _'we now know they don't rely on thermal imaging for detecting objects in space, rendering modern stealth useless,' _he concluded. He ordered different teams of scientist through his computer to analyze the footage each focusing on specific parts before turning away to oversee the rest of Cerberus's operations. It was quiet for a few hours before a blaring alarm was sounded, one of the monitors opened up to a Cerberus trooper, "Sir several large ships of unknown design have just came through the mass relay, opening video feed to you." He couldn't believe it, it was those same strange spiked ships that came through the wormhole.

"I'm ordering a full evacuation of all essential personal! I want all non-essentials to form a diversionary force immediately!" He ordered. Not waiting for a reply, he pressed a button that immediately began scrambling his computers, electricity flew about as micro detonators in the hardware exploded ensuring nothing could be recovered. With the first step done he turned to exit his secluded room before stumbling as the whole station shook with the sounds of explosions in the distance. He tapped his omni-tool calling up a security personal, "what's happening, how far along are the evacuations?"

"We are surrounded, the attacking force have simply ignored our first and second wave of fighters and jumped directly on the station, they are attacking defense batteries we are losing guns the kinetic barriers are useless," almost to reinforce his point another rumble was heard in the distance as the Illusive man now assumed was another point defense turret exploding. The report continued, "they have begun launching boarding parties they are forcing their way into sector 7, 14, and 21...they are cutting off our launch bay escape is no longer possible...they are now heading into sector 22 requesting permission to fall back into defensible positions!" With all options taken from him, he gave the order, along with placing additional security personal around his office, he turned back into his dark star lit room to sit alone.

He lit another cigarette reflecting on his actions with a pistol on his lap. As he took a deep drag he wondered if he could have done anything different, the reapers where neutralized but thanks to Shepard's idealism their great power was lost, the galaxy now stood vulnerable to what ever these things were. Screams and gunfire drew closer, he assumed the other sounds to be gun fire many sounded like the high pitched noise a laser makes cutting through metal, and another was a deafening load bang that sounded every few seconds or so. Suddenly intense gun fire erupted just outside of his office, lasting for a while slowly growing less intense as he assumed the last of his defenders died. He loaded his pistol with a thermal clip, stood up and aimed at the door.

He was expecting the door to explode open, but instead it was opened, almost in a polite formal manner of entering a room. What stepped inside had human forum, but looked completely like a machine, it's skin or exoskeleton for that matter was mix of green and gold metals made the illusive man think it was android of some terrifying sort. However it failed to cause him to hesitate as he squeezed the trigger and fired at it again and again. The android didn't seem to react as the bolts struck it shielding, it calmly opened the door allowing more of it's kind to follow in showing no signs of self preservation. As the forth round struck the machine it's shields seemed to finally give as the round struck armor beneath causing it stubble a bit before standing to face to the Illusive man. Five of these machines stood inside the room facing him, four of them seemed to be carrying golden rifles while the last carried what looked like a large silver tank turret, but they made no hostile action against him. Their human machine appearance reminded him so much of reaper husks, he felt a wave of fear. A paranoid idea came to him, _'maybe these where human's only a few hours ago, who's to say reapers of a different kind didn't come through that wormhole that transformed them'_. He slowly put the pistol against his own head shouting, "you won't be taking me!"

"That will be quite unnecessary," a deep and commanding voice said. A human shape strolled leisurely into the room, while he looked to be in a dull gray combat suit he was unarmed. He reached up and took his helmet off, reviling a bald, scarred human face. "Come let us have a seat we have much to discuss you and I," he said with a gesture. The Illusive man looked down to see one of the androids had carried in a chair for the bald man placing it opposite to his lone chair.

The Illusive man holstered his pistol, regaining his cold and confident appearance. He sat down first then gestured to the bald man as if to give his non-verbal permission for him to seat himself. His guest bowed his head slightly before taking his seat. There was silence for a moment before the Illusive man asked, "so who are you people and where are you from?"

His guest nodded before answering, "A practical and yet a meaningless question, we are the Nation, and we come from a galactic cluster called New Eden."

The Illusive man smiled, yes a meaningless question neither of these terms meant anything to him, he followed up with "are you human?"

His guest gave some thought before answering, "Now that is difficult to answer in my case, I don't know how but the people from my galaxy and yours are the same species genetically, as for me I was once only human, but have since transcended and have become a messiah for the Nation."

The Illusive man paused, questions of how humans exist outside of the galaxy, let alone the obvious advancement they have would have to be explored after he got through the obvious and personal ones, "how did you find us and why attack, why so much effort on us first?"

"Well tracking you was easy, your people still rely mostly on transmissions in space, albeit well encrypted but an old technology by our standards, I do apologize about these past hostilities I had to speak with you personally and our intelligence suggested you do not simply meet with those that ask," he replied. Before the Illusive man could respond his guest continued, "yes you. I understand you, the vision for humanity and the galaxy that cannot comprehend," with that last bit he gestured to the androids standing by. "To answer the questions you no doubt have, these where the people that couldn't embrace the future so the future choose to embrace them instead, and to you and your people I also offer the future, I know you are the only person in this galaxy that can share and understand the future I offer!"

The Illusive man let out a long puff of smoke almost shrouding himself before saying, "I am interested in both peace and possible technology that you could offer, but I'm not completely satisfied with your answer that you'd go to these lengths only just to talk with me, what's you're angle, and while we are on that you still haven't told me who you are, do you have a name?"

The bald man nodded as if agreeing with his questions, "yes that is right I am after something," he said standing up announcing, "I am Sansha Kuvakei, I am the Nation! And I am interested in everything Cerberus has in terms of data and artifacts regarding reaper indoctrination."


End file.
